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Home » Greenhouse program created for Riviera Maya off to disappointing start

Greenhouse program created for Riviera Maya off to disappointing start

By Sabrina Rodriguez, Politics on August 13, 2015

Playa del Carmen, Q.R. – A new energy program created to measure the greenhouse effects of local hotels has, so far, disappointing results.

The program, Greehnhouse Gases (GHG) Mexico, has been set up to measure the amount of pollutants each hotel in the Riviera Maya produces. Of the 146 existing hotels, only one has signed up.

The sustainable program is being promoted by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) and the statistics are to be calculated by the Program for Sustainable Hospitality Association of Hotels of the Riviera Maya.

Fernando Valley Castillejos, Program Manager for Sustainable Hospitality, says that local hotels have until the end of November to sign up for the GHG program. He did not wish to disclose the name of the only hotel that has signed up so far. He says they need to send reminders to the other hotels to sign up for the GHG emissions program.

The monitoring of hotels is a public-private partnership coordinated by Semarnat and the Commission on Private Sector Studies for Sustainable Development (Cespedes) of the Business Coordinating Council.

“What we measure is how much each hotel generates in gas and electricity consumption — all its activities — so we know how much impact tourism has on the environment,” said Fernando del Valle.

This program serves not only businesses in the tourism industry, but other industries involving metallurgy, which are a different level of emission reports. The program also includes mining impacts, measuring its impact on the karstic (topography) in general.

Del Valle Castillejos said that the less greenhouse gases emitted by a top vacation center the more the sustainability policy in that destination is strengthened.